Managing the knowledge life cycle

MIT Sloan Management Review

Volumn 44, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 75-83

  Birkinshaw, Julian ^a   Sheehan, Tony ^b  

^a LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL   (United Kingdom)

^b ARUP   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0345888520     PISSN: 15329194     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. See, for example, M.H. Boisot, "Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999);
2. E.M. Rogers, "Diffusion of Innovations" (New York: Free Press, 1962);
3. and K. Moore and J. Birkinshaw, "Managing Knowledge in Global Service Firms: Centres of Excellence," Academy of Management Executive 12 (November 1998): 81-92.
4. Our model builds particularly on the ideas developed by M. Boisot in "Knowledge Assets." The key point is that while more and more companies or individuals are aware of and have access to a form of knowledge as it moves up the vertical axis in later stages, the knowledge is not necessarily more valuable to them or applicable without substantial effort. In some cases, knowledge can be fully diffused but not applied or used appropriately.
5. Patent protection, of course, may limit other companies' ability to use new knowledge. In this article, we do not give much consideration to patent protection since it rarely applies to knowledge services like management consulting.
6. See E. Wenger and W. Snyder, "Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier," Harvard Business Review (January-February 2000): 139-146.
7. M. Arend, "New Chase CIO Setting up Centers of Excellence," ABA Banking Journal (March 1992): 62.
8. See http://www.livinginnovation.org/displaySection.html?id=99&cold= 34&secList=99+100+101+102.
9. Our argument is at odds with the often-quoted distinction between personalization and codification strategies set out by M. Hansen, N. Nohria and T. Tierney in "What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?" Harvard Business Review (March-April 1999): 106-116. They argue that a company should essentially choose one knowledge strategy or the other. Our belief is that organizations should follow strategies according to the life-cycle stage of the knowledge in question. A company bridging stages two and three is likely to need both personalization and codification capabilities.